While browsing my bookshelves this morning I came across a book I read several years ago which is part of the Modern Library Food Series. The series has been edited by Ruth Reichl and lists 7 other foodie books. The one I have is called The Passionate Epicure By Marcel Rouff . It is an English translation of the original French. The main character Dodin-Bouffant is based loosley on Anthelme Brillat-Savarin._________________Barbara

My favorite foodie book is "When French Women Cook" by Madeleine Kamman, first published in 1976. It is a lovely and personal memoir of cooking through stories about the women who taught Madeleine to cook as a young girl (before and during the war). Their personalities come through in the recipes and stories they share. It truly is a remembrance of France of days gone by; I read it again and again. It's a shame not too many people seem familiar with this one. To read it is to savor it. What a treasure.

She is well known as hewr book. I met her when she had a restaurant here and was very snappy and I think that is why she left. Too bad her food was great._________________Sharing food with another human being is an intimate act that should not be indulged in lightly
..................................MFK Fisher

Petite gourmande - I've just ordered (from https://www.alibris.com) When French Women Cook. It is out of print but they have lots of second hand copies available. ...and not expensive. Thanks for the recommendation._________________Barbara

the harry potter books have great depictions of food.
And the movies as well. I remember when I saw the Sorcerer's Stone in the end of the afternoon and the halloween feast was unbearable:so many gorgoeous dishes...

Ruth Reichl has edited a wonderful book; "Remembrance of Things PariS, sixty years of writing from Gourmet."
Jaques Pépin's charming auto-biography, "The Apprentice."_________________Sharing food with another human being is an intimate act that should not be indulged in lightly
..................................MFK Fisher

Here are some titles that come to mind as I wade happily though this thread. Theyre not all food books per se but they all brought me great joy when they spoke of food.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith. My favorite book ever and I can still remember the first time I read it, at age 11, a tattered library copy with an ad for war bonds on the back. Wonderful in a million ways, including the way she writes about food. Francie buying bread and seeing the old man with a toe poking through his shoe the amazing things her mother Katie can make with stale bread the way Francie sits with her hand around her cup of coffee throughout her meal and then pours it down the sink (her Aunt Sissy says theyre too poor to waste the coffee like that, and Katie says that if pouring a cup of coffee down the drain makes Francie feel rich for even a moment, she gets to have that).

Home Cooking, Laurie Colwin. Another fine memoir/cookbook. I felt so at home reading this Laurie wrote so lovingly about food but also believed it could be easy to have a life full of cooking and eating with people you love. Thats all I want really

The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri. There are great descriptions of food throughout the book, from the very beginning when Ashima tries to recreate a Calcutta snack food in her Boston kitchen during her pregnancy, to the Bengali food that she cooks throughout the book, to the wonderful descriptions of cooking and eating when Gogol is dating Maxine (in Chelsea and in New Hampshire).
Sassafrass, Cypress, & Indigo, Ntozake Shange. This book is magic. Theres nothing in it that didnt woo my senses its full of music and poetry, both literally and in the voices of the characters. Food plays a central role throughout and there are some incredible recipes has anyone ever tried any of them? I havent but always mean to

Dont Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller. Although Fullers voice is quite different from Shanges, theres something similar about them like, Im not sure you can write this way about a place unless you love it deeply. In this case its southern Africa, where Fuller grew up. There are great food passages throughout, from the bread and curling butter her mother offers to the earnest American missionaries to the Christmas pudding to the stew that a very poor family shares with Fuller. This was one of my favorite reads from last year, the sort that you mourn in finishing. I was so wrapped up in the world she lived in as a child and had quite a hard time closing the book and realizing I was in fact in New York City, not Rhodesia.

Ive yet to read any MFK Fisher and want to badly. Ive been enjoying the thread on her books as well. I cant wait to hear more suggestions from all yall!

And I also absolutely loved "Under the Tuscan Sun" by Frances Mayes (didn't see the movie of the same name though - I gather the screenwriters decided that her story wasn't interesting enough and changed it....)

Thanks to all of you for naming books I'm not familiar with - I have several on order now!

On Food and Cooking: Harold McGee: This is one of the most spectacular books ever writen on food. Well its writen on paper not on food, but anyway it delves deep into the science that is the foundation of the cullinary arts. It can be a challenge to get through at times, but I find it so enlightening that I keep checking it out from the library.